Owning the Room

One of the greatest compliments that a speaker can receive is to be told they “owned the room.” The first time I was told I had owned a room it came as a bit of a surprise, since that wasn’t my conscious intention.

Yet it wasn’t an accident either. Speakers who own the room almost always share certain notable qualities. To start with, they tend to project confidence without ego and come across as authentically relatable.

I wrote a blog a few years ago about how anyone can adopt this same approach and be the kind of speaker who draws in the audience and creates a real connection. Here are the three steps I laid out to being a speaker who owns the room.

Know Your Audience

Understand who is there and what their point of view might be. Use that understanding to anticipate the pain points in their business that you can address directly. Read their body language just like you would at any social event. And finally, allow yourself the room to be flexible and let the speech or the discussion flow instead of rigidly sticking to your script.

Share Your Story

Authentic stories, especially personal stories, are the best way to be relatable and draw people into a shared vision. By all means, edit your stories to protect the innocent, but honor the truth of the story. If you put yourself in the story with honesty and vulnerability, other people will often put themselves in it too.

Be Prepared

The people who sound the most natural are often those who are best prepared. They usually have enough prepared remarks to feel comfortable going off script without worrying about being caught off guard or running out of coherent thoughts. It’s a good idea to always know your numbers and to have at least a few stats handy to support your anecdotes. Nothing is more convincing than a compelling story that is backed by numbers.

The original article is available here.